Don't get me wrong, the gameplay is good, but either the difficulty is pitched too high, or the only way to play and win is with a team of friends who all know their respective tasks. It seems impossible to progress beyond the 6th wave with random users.

Also you can be enjoying a game and then two people leave, and others leave and before you know it there are only two or three of you left, yet the game takes no notice of this and doesn't adjust the levels difficulty.

The game is good, I'm not knocking the gameplay, but currently every MvM experience so far can be summed up as: Wait 4 minutes to join server, enjoy game until wave 5 or 6, fail level 6 a couple of times, some quit forcing others to quit, causing impossible progression for those left. Quit.

It's very dependant upon how lucky you are in getting group members I've found. I've been in some horrible groups with either incompetent players or very bad group mix (how many snipers do we really need, guys?). Failing at wave 1 is a good indicator something is awry.

But last night, random group, managed to do all 6 stages of Mannworks collecting 100% of the money and only dying once in my demo. Everyone knew what they were doing from the scout harvesting cash to the engi moving turrets and surviving sentry busters. It was a sight to behold I tell you...

Never had it take 4 minutes for me to load though. 30 seconds and I'm in.

Takes about 4-5 minutes before I get in game too (including the ridiculous time it takes for "retrieving server info" grrr.

Last night I played with randoms and as you stated above we were doing ok up until wave 6. Hit a brick wall completely! Must have taken about 45 mins to do that one wave, but then smashed wave 7 in a single attempt. Got to wave 8... and then my connection died! Was gutted.

Really like it. I don't know what makes it any different to firefight on halo, or horde mode on GoW, probably the bags and bags of character it has. Haven't played anything on PC/MAC in years but this is wonderful.

From my experiences players are generally getting it now, and, dare I say, it may be a bit too easy now. Maybe I've been lucky but everyone does their job and the difficult waves normally only need one more go, a little adjustment by all, and bingo.

I'm assuming Valve are going to make more maps? Can community maps be created for this mode?

Apostle wrote:
From my experiences players are generally getting it now, and, dare I say, it may be a bit too easy now. Maybe I've been lucky but everyone does their job and the difficult waves normally only need one more go, a little adjustment by all, and bingo.

I'm assuming Valve are going to make more maps? Can community maps be created for this mode?

Are you trying the advanced modes, or just ending up in normal difficulty rooms? I've found the normal dif ones rather easy with a decent team, but the same is rarely true of the advanced difs!

Wait 5 minutes to connect
First game: I had bad feelings when I saw the team had 3 engineers, following a request for one of them to play Pyro, and the non-consenting reply that I shall summarise as "No". Three failed attempts to get past the first wave, I decided to cut my losses.

Wait 5 minutes for next server.
Join game to hear two say, "We'll never do it with only two", they quit leaving me on my own.

Another 5 minutes.
Join game where everyone is talking about quitting, they play one more game and then quit leaving me and another chap. He stays for a minute or two. Then says sorry and quits.

Another 5 minutes
Join game Where one player is trying to explain the pointlessness of playing Spy against an army of scouts. "I'm great at being a Spy" comes the reply. Fail the wave three times. Most quit.

@orpheus Pretty sure they're normal difficulty servers, I don't know how to tell though? I just use the server browser and join the first one with a good ping and 4/5 players. Don't bother with the matchmaking thing, it just hangs for minutes! I'm not that patient.

@Apostle yeah most of them are - if you hit esc in game, there's a little vote icon in whatever the topmost button is (server I think, shit memory). Click it & it'll let you start a vote to change the map/difficulty etc. Afaik there's no in-game difficulty notification, annoyingly.

Why are there so many idiots who fail to see the big flashing "PRESS F4 WHEN READY" text? A minute isn't really that long, but why wait if you're a heavy or a scout, standing at the front lines? Are you really that stupid?

Played MVM a fair but over the weekend and managed to clear two waves.
Having a co-operative team makes all the difference (and the way they talk to each other - but more on that later), the game goes like clockwork with everyone either sticking to their task or mucking-in wherever needed.

Had brilliant medics deploying the Uber at just the right time. I manufactured myself a canteen and had a few Ubers in that too. A money collecting Scout makes a massive difference.

In between the two wave clearances, there was a couple of classic examples of how not to do it. An irritating user who was bossing everyone around and insulting people's playing ability. Was labelled as an "11 year old" by the others and had the mick taken out of him"

The other was a whiny American who ordered everyone to do what he wanted telling people what class they should be and moaning when the wave was lost. People left, I left just after he started moaning about the fact that it was his Squad Surplus voucher that was allowing people to get the extra items.

They contrasted starkly with the bloke in another game who was politely suggesting that the Engi move his dispenser, or that it would be helpful if a new player played as Scout. Which people did, because he explained why it would help.

The only problem with MVM still, is the randomness of landing in a good team.